David Bruce Composer | The Mystery behind the Creation of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks Album @DBruce | Uploaded January 2018 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This week I look at Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, an album that I've loved for 20 or more years. Despite being one of Van Morrison's most loved albums, he very rarely played the album live until the 40 anniversary in 2008.
Part of the reason may have been that the album wasn't fully his vision - producer Lewis Merenstein must take a lot of the credit for inviting the wild collection of instrumentalists, mostly from the jazz world, to come and record Morrison's Mystical Songs.
And in particular, bass player Richard Davis's quirky style of bass playing added hugely to the joy of the album. So perhaps Van Morrison never felt it was fully his record? We may never fully know, but it remains a haunting and beautiful album.
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If you're interested in having me look at one of your compositions please feel free to get in touch via twitter at @davidbruce - I'm hoping to start helping out younger composers with advice in some future videos.
This week I look at Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, an album that I've loved for 20 or more years. Despite being one of Van Morrison's most loved albums, he very rarely played the album live until the 40 anniversary in 2008.
Part of the reason may have been that the album wasn't fully his vision - producer Lewis Merenstein must take a lot of the credit for inviting the wild collection of instrumentalists, mostly from the jazz world, to come and record Morrison's Mystical Songs.
And in particular, bass player Richard Davis's quirky style of bass playing added hugely to the joy of the album. So perhaps Van Morrison never felt it was fully his record? We may never fully know, but it remains a haunting and beautiful album.
***
If you're interested in having me look at one of your compositions please feel free to get in touch via twitter at @davidbruce - I'm hoping to start helping out younger composers with advice in some future videos.
